Death row convict's lawyers argues that he is incompetent

A man convicted of participating in a fatal robbery in Kerrville is arguing he is mentally incompetent to be put to death. At a hearing that began Tuesday, lawyers for Jeffrey Lee Wood, 36, tried to convince U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia that Wood is too delusional to understand why he is to die.

Wood believes, among other things, that he is the victim of a Freemason conspiracy and that bribing the trial judge would have fixed his problems, court records show.

In 1998, Wood was convicted and sentenced to die for the murder of store clerk Kris Keeran under Texas’ “law of parties,” which makes all who are involved in a felony, like robbery, subject to the death penalty if one of them commits murder in the course of it.

On Jan. 2, 1996, Wood and Daniel Earl Reneau parked outside a gas station and Reneau entered, pointed a .22-caliber handgun at Keeran and fatally shot him when he didn’t respond fast enough to Reneau’s orders, court records show.

Hearing the gunshot, Wood entered the gas station and found the clerk on the floor behind the counter. The duo then took a safe, cash box and the surveillance videotape and Wood drove the getaway vehicle, records show.